Due to recent advances in technology, computer users are now able to enjoy many features that provide an improved user experience, such as playing various media and multimedia content on their personal or laptop computers. For example, most computers today are able to play compact discs (CDs) so users can listen to their favorite musical artists while working on their computers. Many computers are also equipped with digital versatile disc (DVD) drives enabling users to watch movies.
In some multimedia environments, a computer has access to a computer-readable medium storing compressed media files. Common media file types include Moving Picture Experts Group audio layer-3 (MP3) files and WINDOWS MEDIA® technologies audio (WMA) and video (WMV) files. The computer typically organizes the media files into playlists when the compressed media files are played on the computer. The files may be organized according to metadata or other property data associated with the media content. Metadata for a digital media file such as an audio file usually includes general information pertaining to the media file itself. This information is typically stored within the file. For example, an audio file may have metadata tags for the song title, song artist, album title, and a rating. In another example, in the case of audio media files, the files may be organized by album, artist, genre, date, or some user-specified selection and ordering of metadata. A user navigates through this organization using menus and graphical displays to render the desired media files.
Often, users transfer media content from a personal computer to a variety of other devices including another personal computers or portable consumer electronic media devices (e.g., MP3 players). However, conventional personal computers cannot efficiently retrieve media content from portable consumer electronic media devices for storage on the personal computer. Because portable media devices often allow users to modify or update media content stored on portable device, to improve the media experience on the desktop, it is important to seamlessly integrate such updates and modifications to the media content on the desktop.